"Kraft Suspense Theatre" The Easter Breach (TV Episode 1965) Poster

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6/10
Welcome to East Berlin
ctomvelu111 March 2013
The Berlin Wall is up, and a man and his wife trapped on the Russian side attempt to escape to West Berlin, the American side. He makes it, she doesn't, and he plots to get her out. He meets a woman who could be his wife's twin, and woos her. He convinces her to accompany him into East Berlin at Easter time, when the wall is open for the day. While there, he swipes her identity papers, sneaks away and gives them to his pregnant wife. Things don't exactly go as planned from this point. OK episode, showing what desperation can do to a normally moral human being. Mildly suspenseful once the game is afoot. The ending is truly unexpected.
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7/10
She's either very brave or believes in fairy tales
sol-kay15 February 2012
***SPOILERS*** Touching behind the Iron Curtain love story with an ending straight out of the movie "Casablanca" has East German refugee from Communism Werner Schff, Richard Beyman, try to get his pregnant wife Liese, Katherine Crawford, back to him. As it turned out earlier in the movie Werner escaped with his life after evading East German border guards by falling into a nearby ditch where he was rescued by the West German police. As for Werner's wife Liese she didn't fear so well getting caught and borough back to Communist East Berlin. Back in West Berlin and recovering from his injuries Werner runs into Victoria Meinicke also played by Katherine Crawford who works for an West Germany publishing house who's the spitting image of his wife Liese!

With the East German regime opening up the Berlin Wall for the upcoming Easter Holidays the desperate Werner attempts to sweep Victoria off her feet even asking her to marry him so he can have her cross into East Berlin and use, by swiping them,her identity papers to get Lisea, in impersonating Victoria, to cross into West Berlin together with him! This sleazy plan on Werner's part would in fact leave Vicroria behind with almost no hope of getting back, without her papers, to her home in West Germany!

***SPOILERS*** When Werner finally tracks down his wife Liese and tells her his plan to get her out of East Germany she has deep reservations as well as guilty feelings in what her husband is planning to do. Yes Lisea went's to be free from Communism but doesn't want someone else, Victoria, to have to pay the price for it! It's in fact Victoria who in effect clears things up who after tracking down her "lover" and "future husband" Werner at the border check-point. Victoria instead of exposing Werner and his plan goes along with it knowing how much he's in love with Liese. Even though he left her to hang or twist in the wind at a nearby dinner without her identification papers and thus no ticket to get back home!

Victoria showed by her actions or inactions in not turning that heel Werner in to the East Berlin Poilce that she had more class and humanity for him as well as Liese then he would have ever had for her in in that matter anyone else. And you, as well as Werner & Lises, had no doubt at all by the time the movie ended she'll have no trouble in convincing the East German authorities, in proving who she is, and be release back to West Germany. And at the same time make Werner, in having what she did rub off on him, a much better person for it!
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3/10
Some bad clichés sure hinder this one!
planktonrules16 October 2015
Back in the days of the so-called 'Iron Curtain', very, very people from Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe were allowed to visit Western countries. The answer was obvious--the people wouldn't come back because of the repressive governments. I mention this because many younger people today might not know their history and understand the context for "The Easter Breach".

It seems that Werner's pregnant wife is in Eastern Germany and he's been able to escape to the West. He loves her and wants to get her out but how?! By chance, he hits upon an insanely clichéd answer when he finds an identical stranger who just happens to look like his wife!! This sort of nonsense isn't unique to this show and turned up occasionally on shows like "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeanie" where they had identical stranger lookalikes (just with dark wigs). Nowhere was the stupid cliché taken further than with "The Patty Duke Show" where Patty played dual roles--both identical cousins!!! So, from the onset this episode of "Kraft Suspense Theatre" has a HUGE strike against it!

Now you must understand that Werner is a scoundrel...and his plan is NASTY! When he meets this identical stranger, he pretends to fall in love with her and even asks her to marry him. The plan is to that this American to visit East Berlin and then steal her passport and give it to his wife! He could have simply explained the situation to the American but doesn't! Later, she learns his plan when she catches him in the act. What's next?

Aside from the bad cliché, the show also sucks because both the German and American women SOUND ALIKE--JUST LIKE Americans!!! Where is the German accent?! Who picked this woman for this role? And, couldn't she at least TRY to sound different?! Overall a dumb show that at least has a good ending.
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1/10
Cold War drama at the height of the Cold War
brobuckley9 June 2021
It must have been tough to obtain authentic East German uniform gear for movie props in 1965. The first thing I noticed is the East Berlin Border Guards are wearing Swiss Army helmets - a knock-off of a very early (1917) U. S. experimental model rejected by the U. S. military. Now days (2021) the market is flooded with ex-Soviet Bloc military surplus including the very distinctive East German Army Helmets we've all seen in the old newsreels and photographs of the guards who jumped the barbed wire themselves. Interesting storyline though. I enjoyed it.
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